An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes.

Courageous

READING LOLITA is a powerful and courageous novel that everyone should read. Through heart ache,pain and misfortune comes a woman of intense strength. I enjoyed this wonderful memoir, I am a fan of books that depict true life and inspiration.READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN is one of the best as well as NIGHMARES ECHO and FAT GIRL. All Courageous, Honest and Inspirational reads.

A compelling and sympathetic book

The book is unique in that it is a memoir and a commentary on literary works. It is about the writer's life in Tehran, during the eighties and the nineties and interspersed in her memoir are her comments on western literature and authors such as Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Jane Austen. I believe the writer was trying to let the reader see a link between fiction and reality.

The first few pages led me to believe that the book was going to be about the members of the secret book discussion group which met at the writer's house for two years. The theme of the writer's English literature classes was the relation between fiction and reality.

I was fascinated by the writer's experiences: teaching western literature during a time when anything western was labeled indecent and decadent, surviving the eight year war between Iraq and Iran and deciding to migrate to United States. The book opened my eyes about the strength and courage of Middle Eastern women and in particular, Iranian women.

Nafisi painted a picture of religion being used as an instrument of power that intruded in the personal lives of Iranians after the departure of the Shah. There was an example of some young ladies being reprimanded for eating apples too seductively. She painted a clear picture of chaos in education at the university level where leftists and Islamists frequently clashed on campus reflecting the drama and chaos in the Iranian society where the leftists, Islamists and Monarchists battled each other.

Ultimately, this is a well-written and wonderful book. Not only is it about survival of the human spirit, it's a book that celebrate many passions, reading among them. Pick up a copy! Another very different, but highly enjoyable recent Amazon purchase I enjoyed was The Losers Club: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez.

BORING

I really really wanted to like this book...I even read half the book in the hope that it would improve...but I just couldn't stand it.

The book starts out about about a weekly book club that meets in Iran to discuss western novels. It's a great subject but the author doesn't take it anywhere. She spends pages discussing Lolita like the english professor she is, but not enough on the people in Iran, or even those in her bookclub... I wanted to blare out, please move on! Please stop talking about lolita, I can buy Lolita and read if I wanted myself, I read about about "Reading Lolita in Tehran", not "The True Meaning of Lolita". And what the heck happend to her bookclub? The club appears in the beginning and then vanishes...The title should be changed to "Much You Do About An English Professor in Iran"..

Just my two cents...